“I am surprised. I almost had a heart attack,” Bishop Michel Joseph Pugin of the USCC told the Herald. “Priests cannot be involved in this type of situation, especially in gambling or any other activity that can bring scandal to the church.”

Pugin said the church does not have evidence that Molina gambled with church offerings, which are stored in a box to which Molina does not have a key. Molina, 51, told El Nuevo Herald that his suspension is “an exaggerated and unfair decision.”

The Nicaraguan-born padre is not the first religious leader to hit the gaming tables.